Sooooooo. . . . I just got back from my son's play - Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. There is a character in it named Ms. Brent, a temperate, dour woman that knits half way through the play. The girl who played Ms. Brent had some very recognizable Lion Brand size 13s and she sat there with some yarn in her lap making motions that looked more like she was drawing concentric circles in her lap with the needles. Points of the needles to her lap, caps toward her face. It was very cute, but I couldn't help but giggle seeing it. Really not a giggling kind of play though :teehee:

fanfair

01-24-2009, 08:03 AM

That's cute!
I used to work with a girl who was in a lot of community plays. I knit everywhere and she would just watch and watch. So i offer to teach her some knitting. She replies with "Oh, I've learned 3 separate times to knit, all for plays. Never could remember how after a while." That's getting into the part for ya.

-Fan Fair.

WandaT

01-24-2009, 08:37 AM

That's pretty cute!

knitgal

01-24-2009, 10:46 AM

That's funny! I guess they figure it doesn't really matter if it looks real as it's not really a focus. Also, if they really did teach her to knit, she would have trouble concentrating on the play!

How was the play? That's a pretty intense book if I remember correctly- quite the play for high school.

Crycket

01-24-2009, 10:50 AM

I thought it was fun when we put on How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying....

The boss in that play knits, and as a result the lead, who is trying to kiss his way up to the top "learns to knit" too...

My mom made up the sample, but at the end of every night, we had to unwind the needles - the actor playing J. Pierpont Finch was not knitting so much as just wrapping the needled over and over again....

Marria

01-24-2009, 12:21 PM

That's funny! Along a similar vein--my husband was a correctional officer for many years and was on essentially what is the prison's version of the SWAT team. (I kid you not.) Whenever we are watching something on TV where there's a crisis situation and the team gets called in, I get to hear all about what their doing wrong. :) Apparently, the only TV show that actually got it anywhere near right, according to him, is the X Files. Which is kind of scary when you think about it.

globaltraveler

01-24-2009, 03:07 PM

I was once in a play in which I played a character who has to light up a cigarette on stage. (I don't smoke, never have.) During a dress rehearsal, I nonchalantly tossed off my lines while equally nonchalantly lighting up. The rest of the cast, who were directed to be staring at me like owls (I'd have to explain the whole play to explain why), all broke up at the same time.

I'd lit the wrong end of the cigarette. :)

evona

01-24-2009, 04:45 PM

:roflhard: At all the great stories!

Yes I believe that she probably wouldn't be able to concentrate as well if she were actually knitting. That's for sure :teehee:

The play was GREAT!!! Very suspenseful! All the kids are so great. This is his third play in the drama department and they just keep getting better and better. This time they got props donated from the set of Days of Our Lives, which really helped.

Speaking of cigarettes in plays, last semester they did Grease and someone found these fake cigarettes that look really real and even smoke (being high school you couldn't expect them to have real cigarettes as props :teehee: ) Anyway, at the end of the show, after the cast took their bows, one of the greasers flicked the fake cigarette out onto the floor in front of the first row and a little girl in the audience hurriedly ran up to stomp it out :roflhard:

thecanfield

01-26-2009, 12:10 PM

I have often wondered about this. it seams that in cartoons, primarily older ones, knitting is always depicted that way, points down and working at the tips of the needles with little to no work on the needle its self. Does anyone have any insight as to why this might be? It seams to me that since knitting has been around way longer that cartoons that it would be at least similar to actuality.

My idea:
Now I donít crochet (I can make a chain and put a border on a blanket but thatís it) so tell me if Iím way off here. what if the needle up thing is actually crocheting, in my mind I donít see why you couldnít use needles, your just pulling a loop of yarn through a previous loop of yarn, just like knitting, you would have to transfer frequently but thatís wouldnít be terrible considering is only one loop. my mind says out that back then metal hooks would be less common and/or more difficult to make nice and small and snag free and wooden ones would have to be hand carved and would probably break easily in the pit of the hook (I think) I have been meaning to learn some crocheting and try it on straight needles but havenít gotten around to it.

Now once again I am probably way off but I donít know any crocheter to run this idea by so let me know.

cftwo

01-26-2009, 12:39 PM

Re crocheting - the angle of a crochet hook is a lot like the angle they use for knitting needles in cartoons - but you couldn't use knitting needles to crochet. It's not always just 1 loop - sometimes you're pulling your thread through as many as 5 or 6 loops, and the hook gives you a lot more control for that. (For example, doing what the americans call a double crochet, you wrap the yarn, pick up a loop through the stitch below, bring the yarn through two loops, and then bring the yarn through the remaining two loops.)